Naval Combat Rules
This system for naval combat is derivative of the 7th Sea naval combat system and owes homage to Qualkenbush's High Seas Combat rules and the Aldana Steel boarding rules.
Introduction
This system is intended to capture a balance between cinematic combat and some ability for players to feel like they are "owners" of their ships, making decisions that impact the battle.
A Note on Rounding
In several places these rules call for division, usually "one-half strength" or similar formulations. The rules assume mathematical rounding, so that one-half of 3 rounds to 2, as does one-half of 4, and one-half of 5 rounds to 3. As a consequence, traits rated 1 are still 1 even when divided in half; this represents the "minimal nature" of a rating of 1.
Ships and their Statistics
Like heroes, ships have traits and advantages which represent different aspects of the vessel used in combat and elsewhere.
Ship Traits
Ships have the same five traits as characters, but they represent something different.
- Brawn (Cannons): The number and weight of the ship's guns. Each point of Cannons represents roughly 15-20 guns. When firing chase guns, a ship's Cannons are treated as one-half their broadside value.
- Finesse (Discipline): The skill and training of the crew. Fishermen are usually discipline 1; merchant crews are usually 2; military crews are discipline 3, with some elite ships reaching 4. Only truly exceptional crews with long service together reach Discipline 5.
- Wits (Sails): The sails, rigging, rudder and other manuevering parts of the ship. A ship's Sails rating cannot be higher than its Crew, though Crew damage in combat doesn't reduce Sails during the battle. (It may after combat; see the section on casualties, below.)
- Resolve (Hull): The strength and resiliency of the ship. The maximum Hull of a ship is rougly one point for every 20-30 feet of keel length/30-40 feet of total length.
- Panache (Crew): The relative size of the ship's crew; merchant vessels have relatively smaller crews, military ships relatively larger for their size. Typically, a ship has approximately 4 Brute Squads/25 sailors for each point of Crew.
At the start of a story, a ship receives Drama Dice equal to the number of their lowest trait. Before a battle, the Captain can generate additional temporary Drama Dice through a Wits + Incitation check before the battle: for every 10 points he rolls, the ship receives an additional Drama Die.
Ship Advantages
This is by no means an exhaustive list.
NB: I'll add point values to advantages later.
- Large Ship: This is a big ship, like a galleon or man-o-war, and its crew is proportionally larger. Treat its crew as a 2 higher during boarding actions, and it requires twice as many sailors for each point of Crew.
- Small Ship: This is a particularly small ship, like a cutter or sloop, or it has been rigged such to require particularly few sailors. As a consequence, it requires half as many sailors for each point of Crew and it is treated as having one-half Crew during boarding actions.
- Marines: The ship carries a complement of marines or other dedicated boarders. They represent 1 die of Crew that can only be used for boarding actions. This advantage can be taken multiple times.
- Carronades: Some of the ship's guns have been replaced with heavy-caliber, short-ranged carronades. The ship has a +2k0 bonus to Cannons within 4 Raises, but is at -1k1 at farther range.
- Gun Drill: The crew is exhaustively trained in rapid fire. The ship can fire more than once per round. It still requires an action to reload, and because the ship is focusing on firing rapidly instead of aiming the gunner is treated as having 2 less in his Gunnery knack, to a minimum of 0.
Ship Rigs
Every ship has one of three sailplans, or rigs, which affect how it sails in combat:
- Square-Rigged: The ship is primarily rigged with square sails; this rig is best for running with the wind, and makes the fastest passages. To count as square-rigged, more masts must be square-rigged than not. (At this time, most galleons and other ships had a lateen or gaff sail on their aftmost mast; such ships still count as square-rigged if they have three or more masts.) Square-rigged ships receive a Free Raise when running or tacking downwind, but must make an extra Raise when beating.
- Hermaphrodite Rig: Also called a brigantine rig, this ship has a mix of square-rigged and fore-and-aft rigged sails. Most common on two-masted brigantines, but also sometimes seen on three or more masted vessels. The hermaphrodite rig offers some of the advantages as well as some of the drawbacks of both square-rigged and fore-and-aft rigged vessels.
- Fore-and-aft Rig: This ship is rigged almost entirely with fore-and-aft sails, either lateen or gaff sails. Fore-and-aft rigged ships are able to sail better to windward than square-rigged vessels, but make slower passages and are slower when running. Fore-and-aft rigged ships receive a Free Raise when reaching or beating, but must make an extra Raise when running.
Ship's Officers
The rules recognize the following officers with these key skills and posts:
- Captain: Tactics/Quarterdeck*
- Pilot/Quartermaster: Piloting/Quarterdeck
- Master of the Tops: Rigging/Shrouds
- Gunner: Gunnery/Gundeck
- Bosun: Leadership/Upper Deck
- Surgeon: Surgery/Orlop
- Carpenter: Shipwright/Well
- Master-at-Arms: Combat Skills/Upper Deck
The captain is usually stationed on the quarterdeck, but other than assigning Crew Dice each round he does not have a particular key skill or post. Instead, he can make a Wits + Tactics roll each round at a TN of 15; if successful, he gets 1 unkept die (plus an additional unkept die for every raise he makes) he can add to any roll made on the ship, including damage and soak rolls.
These rules assume the use of a map, since we have a bunch of the great WizKids pirate miniatures. No measurement is required, however, and so it can be easily done mapless.
Range, Wind, and Initial Setup
Range is measured in Raises; sighting distance is somewhere around 12 Raises, and ships can be identified at about 10 raises out. In heavy weather, sighting and identification distances may be closer. These increments are inexact, and do not refer to exact distances.
At the beginning of combat, the GM determines the direction of the wind; for the purposes of these rules, the strength of the wind is abstracted away.
Ships begin in a relative position determined by the story of the GM, but if needed, captains or quartermasters can make opposed Piloting rolls to determine which ship has advantageous placement - in most cases, that means beginning with the weather gage.
The Weather Gage
Upwind ships are said to have "the weather gage" - the advantage gained in manuevering from being upwind, and also the advantage being upwind gives to the elevation of a ship's guns. As a consequence, ships with the weather gage receive a Free Raise to all cannon attacks, while ships attacking the ship with the weather gage must make an extra Raise to represent their guns being unfavorably depressed.
Like ordinary combat, naval combat occurs in rounds. A ship's Crew represents how many actions a ship can take a round, just as Panache represents how many actions a character takes each round.
Unlike ordinary combat, however, movement matters in naval combat. Ships are always moving, but they are moving in a particular way - in a direction the captain must decide in advance. While ships move at all times, for convenience's sake ships' movement is tracked - and captains can make movement decisions - twice a round, at the start of Phase 0 and at the start of Phase 5.
Before any movement or actions occur, however, action dice must be assigned. Because Action Dice represent the crew assigned to a task, they must be ordered to their posts at the beginning of a round, and those Action Dice can only be used for actions at that post. Crew dice can be posted to the Gun Crews, Topmen, a Work Gang, and the Boarding Party. Crew dice assigned to different posts can take the following actions:
- Gun Crews: Fire, Reload
- Topmen: Active Defense, Re-rig Sails
- Work Gang: Shore Up Hull, Clear Debris, Fight Fire
- Boarding Party: Boarding
- Any Crew die can be used for the Stand Firm action.
Crew can be reassigned to a different post mid-round; doing so is an Interrupt Action requiring one additional Action Die. If the reassigned Crew also needs to act on an earlier phase, it is an Interrupt Action requiring two additional Action Dice, for a total of three!
Taking all of this into account, the order of a naval round is:
- Action Dice (Crew) are rolled.
- Action dice are assigned.
- Movement is adjudicated before Phase 0.
- Phases 0-4 occur as normal.
- Movement is adjudicated before Phase 5.
- Phases 5-10 occur.
Movement
Ships have four basic movements:
- Run: The ship sails downwind on a broad reach or dead run. Ships receive two Free Raises when running.
- Wear: The ship zigzags downwind, tacking as it goes to present broadsides. Ships receive a Free Raise when tacking downwind.
- Reach: The ship sails perpendicular to the wind on a beam reach.
- Beat: The ship tacks repeatedly upwind, sailing close-hauled to the wind. Ships must make an extra Raise when beating.
Whenever a ship moves, the captain or pilot makes a Sails + Piloting roll; the difficulty is generally 15, though rough seas or bad winds may require additional Raises. If the roll fails, the ship luffs while tacking, wears poorly or otherwise has some issue; it still moves, though it has to take extra effort (and usually extra distance) to get where it is going. When close to a lee shore, this can be very dangerous.
When two ships are chasing each other, both captains can calls raises to pile on extra speed or make tighter manuevers. If one ship calls and makes more raises than the other, it closes one Raise towards that ship. If the ships are not traveling at similar angles, the GM may require one or two additional Raises from the chasing ship as it manuevers abaft of its prey. When the ships are on an interception course, the GM may provide one or two Free Raises to the chase roll.
Gunnery
Firing at other ships is key to naval battles. Ships have four batteries of guns: two broadsides, one port and one starboard, and two sets of chase guns, one at the stern and one at the bow. Broadside batteries roll the ship's Brawn/Cannons for damage; Chase guns roll half of the Ship's Brawn/Cannons.
A ship can only fire a broadside battery when the appropriate side faces the other ship. Otherwise, it will fire its chase guns. A wearing or beating ship is assumed to be zig-zagging across the seas, so if the ship succeeds at its manuever roll it can fire broadsides at ships to lee or windward.
To fire a battery, the ship's gunner makes a Discipline + Gunnery roll. The TN is based on Range, and is equal to a TN of five for every Raise of distance (so if the range is 10, the TN to hit is 50. If the range is 5, the TN to hit is 25). Shots are assumed to be hull shots; to aim for the rigging, the Gunner must make one raise. To aim for the deck, the Gunner must make two raises.
Any battery of guns can only be fired once per round unless the ship has the Gun Drill advantage. Additionally, it takes one Action to reload a battery.
Special Ammunition
There are several types of special ammunition; the type of ammunition to be used must be declared when the battery is loaded or reloaded. Firing any kind of special ammunition requires the gunner to make a Raise when firing the battery.
- Chain Shot: Chain or bar shot is designed to damage rigging and sails, and can also be effective in anti-personnel uses. Chain shot is +1k1 to damage when aiming for the rigging, but does -2k2 to the hull. It cannot be used beyond Range 4.
- Grape Shot: A loose canvas bag filled with musketballs or other shrapnel, grape shot is used in anti-personnel actions. Grape shot is +1k1 to damage when aiming for the crew, but does no damage to the hull. It cannot be used beyond Range 4.
- Hot Shot: Heated cannonballs, hot shot can only be fired from shore installations. It does +1k1 damage, and for every 10 that explodes a Fire (see below) starts on the ship. If a 10 explodes more than once, however, the shot did not leave the cannon and the damage is done to the shore installation as the cannon explodes rather than to the target ship.
Crossing the T
One of the most deadly fusilades in naval combat is "crossing the T" - a ship firing a full broadside down the length of a ship as it passes by. If the defending ship does not actively defend or fails its active defense roll, it is in difficult straits.
Shots at the hull while crossing the T are less effective due to the ship's shape, at -1k1 damage, but shots at the deck or the rigging are twice as effective: the attacking ship effectively hits 2 times, rolling damage twice as the defending ship soaks twice.
Called Shots
Cannons can make called shots against particular parts of the ship if they make raises. Some example called shots and effects:
- Rudder (Hull shot, 4 raises): The rudder is shot off. The ship must make 2 extra raises on Sails rolls, and automatically fails all attempts to Beat.
- Quarterdeck (Deck shot, 2 raises): All characters on the quarterdeck must avoid a 5k5 Explosion -- TN 20 to take half damage, or 25 to avoid damage entirely.
- Clear the Deck (Deck shot, 2 raises): All characters on the main deck must avoid a 5k5 Explosion -- TN 20 to take half damage, or 25 to avoid damage entirely.
- Mast (Rigging shot, 5 raises): The ship's mast is struck and falls. The ship loses half its maximum Sails rating, rounded up, or all of its Sails rating if it is a single-masted ship. Characters in the rigging must make a TN 30 leaping roll or take 4k4 damage as the rigging falls into the sea, and regardless they end up in the water. The GM or hero firing the cannon needs to spend a Drama Die to bring down the mast.
Active Defenses: Hard-a-port!
While slightly cinematic, ships can Actively Defend by trying to manuever the ship to reduce the damage taken. Ships are big, however, and entire batteries are firing, so ships can rarely avoid all the shot in a barrage. If the ship succeeds at its active defense, the attacking vessel rolls half damage for its cannons, or if it is Crossing the T (see above) it rolls normal damage but does not get the Crossing the T bonus.
Dealing Damage
Ships roll their ship's Brawn/Cannons attribute for damage.
For hull damage, the amount rolled is the number of Glancing Hits, similar to Flesh Wounds in personal combat. The defending captain or ship's carpenter then rolls his ship's Resolve/Hull at a TN of the current number of Glancing Hits. If he fails (and for every 10 points he fails), the ship takes 1 Hull Hit. When the ship has taken a number of Hull Hits equal to its Resolve, the ship has been "Hulled" - it is taking in water at the waterline, and all Active Defenses and piloting rolls at at a -2k2 as the ship takes on water. Additionally, the ship will eventually sink if the hull is not repaired.
For deck damage, the amount rolled is the number of Crew Hits. The defending ship's Bosun rolls Discipline + Leadership; if he fails, the ship loses 1 point of Crew + 1 additional point for every 20 he fails by.
For rigging damage, the amount rolled is the number of Sail Hits. The defending ship's Master of the Tops rolls Sails + Rigging; if he fails, the ship loses 1 point of Sails + 1 additional point for every 20 he fails by.
Critical Hits
Each time the attacking ship rolls a 10 on damage, they do a critical hit in addition to ordinary damage to the hull, deck, or rigging. Critical hits damage an area of the ship, and additionally may wound Heroes in that area. If an area of the ship is hit, Heroes in that location must avoid a 5k5 Explosion -- TN 20 to take half damage, or 25 to avoid damage entirely.
Many ships do not have a separate gundeck and upper deck; in those cases, Upper Deck hits do not subtract cannons but all characters on the main deck must roll to avoid explosions.
Hull Critical Hits
- 1-3 Gundeck hit! - The ship loses 1 point of cannons. (Gundeck)
- 4-6 Orlop hit! - One die fewer of Crew recovers (see Casualties, below) at the end of the battle. (Orlop)
- 7-9 Stores hit! - The Carpenter must make 1 additional Raise on all Shipwright rolls until the ship can replace its stores. (Well)
- 0 Powder room hit! - The ship explodes and begins to sink. All characters must avoid a 8k8 explosion - TN 25 for half damage, 40 to avoid entirely. This option should be used only sparingly, and the GM or hero firing needs to spend a Drama Die (which can be countered by drama die expenditures from the GM or player) to cause the explosion.
Deck Critical Hits
- 1-3 Quarterdeck hit! - Shot clears the quarterdeck. (Quarterdeck)
- 4-6 Upper deck hit! - Shot rakes across the main deck. (Upper deck)
- 7-9 Gundeck hit! - The ship loses one point of cannons. (Gundeck)
- 0 Dismasted - The ship's mast is struck and falls. The ship loses half its maximum Sails rating, rounded up, or all of its Sails rating if it is a single-masted ship. Characters in the rigging must make a TN 30 leaping roll or take 4k4 damage as the rigging falls into the sea, and regardless they end up in the water. The GM or hero firing the cannon needs to spend a Drama Die to bring down the mast.
Rigging Critical Hits
- 1-3 Falling Spar - A spar drops to the deck. Characters on the deck must make a TN 20 leaping roll or take 3k3 damage; additionally, the spar does 1k1 Crew Hits.
- 4-6 Broken Spar - The spar characters in the rigging are standing on as a cannonball tears through it. Characters in the rigging must make either a TN 25 climbing roll to get to a safe part of the rigging or a TN 20 leaping roll to jump for the water; otherwise, they fall to the deck and take 6k6 falling damage.
- 7-9 Sails in the Sea - The shot drops spars, sails and rigging into the sea. They act as a sea anchor, requiring two Raises to all movement and Active Defense rolls until the captain uses a Crew Action to roll Discipline + character's Attack (Knife/Hand Axe/Heavy Weapon) against a TN of 20 to sever the lines.
- 0 Dismasted - As above, under Deck Critical Hits.